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News: Gastrointestinal Cancer

The incidence of pancreatic and small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) has risen over the past decade. NETs are the second most common cancers in the small intestine and pancreas and are frequently associated with liver metastasis. Safia Salaria, M.D., and colleagues examined expression of CD24 – a biomarker for normal and cancer stem cells – […]

Phila Hach recently celebrated her 89th birthday and she has had much to celebrate over the years. “I have a wonderful life. I’ve had an exotic life, an eclectic life,” explained Hach. It is a life that recently included chemotherapy to address advanced colon cancer. Emily Chan, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine and a […]

Stomach cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in the world and does not usually respond well to current treatments. Understanding how stomach cancer develops could provide new opportunities for treatment. Reporting last month in the journal Oncogene, Wael El-Rifai, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues have discovered a new molecular mechanism involving the protein DARPP-32 […]

Dan Brown, M.D., professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences and chief of Interventional Oncology, will spearhead a national Vanderbilt-led research registry that tracks cancer patients whose tumors are treated with Yttrium-90 (Y-90), a radioactive isotope. The Radiation-Emitting SIR-Spheres in Non-Resectable (RESIN) Liver Tumor Patient Registry is the result of a collaboration between VUMC, initially up […]

The gut has its own built-in pacemakers, populations of specialized cells that control smooth muscle contraction in the stomach, small intestine and colon. If these cells fail to develop or if they malfunction, digestion is slowed, nutrient absorption is impaired, and a wide range of gastrointestinal disorders can result. Now Vanderbilt University scientists have discovered […]

A protein that transports the micronutrient selenium and has antioxidant functions may protect against colitis-associated carcinoma — colon cancer that develops in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, according to a new Vanderbilt-led study. The findings, reported in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could suggest strategies for reducing colon cancer risk in […]

R. Daniel Beauchamp, M.D., chair of the Section of Surgical Sciences and the John Clinton Foshee Distinguished Professor of Surgery, was selected to receive the 2015 Flance-Karl Award from the American Surgical Association (ASA). Beauchamp, who is also a professor of Surgery, Cancer Biology and Cell and Developmental Biology, traveled to San Diego last week […]

Lisa Kachnic, M.D., professor and chair of Radiation Oncology and associate director of Multidisciplinary Cancer Research at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), and chief of Radiation Oncology at Boston Medical Center (BMC), has been named the new professor and chair of the Vanderbilt Department of Radiation Oncology. She will join the faculty on Sept. […]

The death rates for most forms of cancer continue to decline at a modest pace among men, women and children in the United States, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer 1975 – 2011. The report from the National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health, […]

Improvements in cancer diagnosis and treatment have led to longer survival for most cancer patients in the United States. However, the improvement in survival was substantially greater among younger patients and those who are white in most of the cancers studied, according to new research by Vanderbilt University investigators. The study was published online recently […]